A year on, India build up for a robust England in final Test

Sanjjeev K Samyal

MUMBAI: At the end of the T20 series against South Africa, India coach Rahul Dravid cautioned his players on what to expect in their next assignment, the fifth Test against England, which due to circumstances forced by Covid is being played as a one-off after the first four games were played last summer.

India had it relatively easy last year when the Virat Kohli-led team led the series 2-1 before the last game was postponed. The cricket legend warned new skipper Rohit Sharma and Co to brace up for a transformed England side opposed to the one they largely dominated in August-september, 2021.

While the England faces will be familiar when they take the field at Edgbaston on July 1, India will have to be prepared for a team with a changed approach.

The timid, conservative playing style that India under Kohli exploited and applied pressure, skipper Sharma will face opponents who are now fearless, aggressive and ready to take risks under the new pair, skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon Mccullum.

The build up

Nothing explains it better than England’s performances in the build-up. In 2021 too, England began the season with a home series against New Zealand. But unlike the 0-1 defeat last year, they are 2-0 up with a game left.

In the first Test of the previous series, the Joe Root-led side had a chance to go for win. They declined to accept the challenge after Kane Williamson dangled the carrot by setting a target of 273 in 75 overs.

The hosts played it safe, making 170/3 at a run-rate of 2.42, their first two wickets scoring 56 runs in 30.3 overs to kill the contest. The lack of intent was glaring. It came back to haunt them in the second Test when they collapsed in the second innings to lose the match and series.

It had a chain effect. They stuttered in the first Test against India at Nottingham as well. After just about managing a draw thanks to most of the final day’s play being washed out, they lost the second and fourth Tests, though they won the third.

Dynamic play

England are unrecognisable in the ongoing series. In the second Test, NZ set a target of 299 and England chased it down in 50 overs, hitting at a run-rate of 5.98. In the first Test, set a target of 277, they fought back from 69/4 to win by five wickets.

The 2021 debacle against NZ had triggered disappointing runs against India, Australia and West Indies, leading to an overhaul of the England set-up. The appointment of Mccullum and Stokes, both charismatic personalities with an attacking mindset, has led to a change in mindset.

The impact of Mccullum and Stokes is being seen in England’s play. While India were locked in the T20 series against South Africa, their think-tank kept an eye on the Trent Bridge Test. The action on June 14 made everyone take note of how Jonny Bairstow (136, 92 balls) and Stokes (75*, 70 balls) led the chase.

That is what made Dravid declare that it will be a different proposition from last year when India were on the cusp of a famous series win before Covid positives in their camp forced the postponement of the final Test.

“England are playing well at the moment and it is going to be a bit different from last year when England were probably a little bit on back foot. They have played some good games and we have a pretty good side as well,” Dravid said on Sunday.

England, apart from playing in familiar conditions, also are having a perfect build-up. England play New Zealand in the third Test from June 23 while India have to make optimum use of the warm-up game against a County side from June 24-27 at Grace Road, Leicestershire.

Dravid’s challenge is not just getting the side into the right frame of mind, but most important is that the coach must find the best batting combination after injury to KL Rahul. India’s strong show in 2021 was built their openers Rohit Sharma and Rahul blunting the England new-ball attack.

Ashwin misses UK flight after testing Covid +ve

PTI ADDS: Ravichandran Ashwin has not travelled to the United Kingdom along with his India team-mates for the one-off ‘fifth Test’ after testing positive for Covid-19, a BCCI official told PTI.

Ashwin is currently in quarantine and will only join the squad after meeting all protocols requirements. The Indian team had left for UK on June 16.

“Ashwin hasn’t travelled with the squad to UK as he has tested positive for Covid before departure. But we are hopeful that he will recover well in time before the Test match starts on July 1,” the BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity. “However, he might miss the practice game against Leicestershire,” he added. The rest of the squad is already in Leicester. after a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, Manguii, and about 300 to 500 other students, started crossing the international border every day to keep their education going.

“Schools in Khawmawi have remained closed due to the unrest and since I didn’t want my daughter to miss out on her education, I got her admitted at St Joseph’s School in Zokhawthar,” said Chinpuii.

Every day, the walk from their homes takes close to half an hour. On days when the schools are open, personnel from the Mizoram Police keep the iron gate on the border open from 7am to 9 am to allow the schoolbag-carrying students to enter. The police post is the only one with personnel manning the gate. There is a Customs office a few metres away from the bridge, empty and forlorn. As the clock strikes 9, chains are loosely placed on the gate, which restricts people with bags, but leaves enough wiggle room to cut across.

“There’s no fixed number of students from Myanmar who come to attend schools in Zokhawthar on a regular basis. On some days it goes up as high as 500. On Thursday, our logs say 396 entered India till 9am,” said a Mizoram Police official, posted near the bridge, on the condition of anonymity.

Once they enter the India, these students go to the nine government and private schools in Zokhawthar. In these schools, they study not only with Indian students, but also with children of refugees from Myanmar who entered Mizoram over the past year, and now live in camps following the military coup.

MYANMAR TO INDIA

Free movement regime

In May 2018, India and Myanmar inked the Free Movement Regime that allows tribal people living in border areas to cross the international boundary and travel up to 16 kilometres into either side without visa restrictions, and on a simplified permit. In Mizoram in particular, state officials said, there are over 250 villages with over 300,000 people living within 10km of the border who frequently cross the border via 150 formal and informal crossings including the border town of Zokhawthar.

When HT visited the Zokhawthar border this month, on the Indian side, one police official kept count of the children entering each day, but prevented nobody. On the Myanmar side, there were no checks at all.

“As we were already admitting children of Myanmar refugees, when those who had not actually moved to India began coming for admissions, we took them in as well. They pay fees like anybody else,” said principal of a private school in Zokhawthar on condition of anonymity. Champai deputy commissioner James Lalrinchanna, however, said, “I don’t have information on students who come to India and then return. If it is happening, I think that is just restricted to one place.”

Once they come to India, the students are placed one level below what they were across the border.

“Students from Myanmar lost out on their studies with Covid and the violence. They may have fallen behind. We have added three new classrooms,” said Francis Sailo, principal of St Joseph’s School. The school has 524 students from classes 1 to 8, of which 206 are Myanmarese. Twelve-year-old Khrihmngnkin is happy that she is in school, but there is a tinge of sadness. “I missed out on classes in my country. I should have been in Class 6 now, but here I am studying in Class 5,” she said. Khrihmngnkin is from the Myanmarese village of Tio, located next to Khawmawi, and crosses the bridge across the river Tiau. Next to her, on most days, is Joseph Lalsiamthara, from the same village. “I used to love going to school. But since last year, everything closed down. I am happy I can be in a classroom again,” said 13-yearold Joseph.

Deluge of students

Two kilometers away, the government-run pre-primary school is also dealing with a deluge of students. There are eight teachers for 306 students, 215 of them from Myanmar, close to 200 of whom come and go every day. “In order to accommodate the new entrants, we had to make a new pre-primary section where 97 students are studying at present,” said principal H Lairikhuma.

For teachers, there are learning challenges to overcome. “We noticed that students from Myanmar are usually weak at English. So from Class 1, we focus on the alphabet. We have books in Mizo, while they used to study in Burmese. But since Mizo is written in the Roman script, once they understand English, they catch up quickly,” said Rosangpuia Tlaisun, a teacher in the same school.

The daily entry and exit of students in Zokhawthar is also testament to a broader crisis since the February 2021 coup, and repressive military action, particularly in the Chin state. With Mizos sharing traditional ethnic and social ties with people from Chin, the state reached out with humanitarian assistance, allowing them to enter the state along its 510 boundary with Myanmar and live as refugees.

There has not always been consensus on this in India, with disagreements between the Centre and the federal Mizo National Front government. On March 10, 2021, the central government directed the governments of four states — Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, all of which share a border with Myanmar — not to allow the influx of people from across the border and detect and deport those who had already entered.

Mizoram’s chief minister Zoramthanga, however, asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow asylum in the face of a “human catastrophe of gigantic proportions”. “Myanmar areas bordering Mizoram are inhabited by Chin communities who are ethnically our Mizo brethren with whom we have been having close contacts throughout these years even before India became independent…therefore Mizoram can’t remain indifferent to their sufferings today,” he said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

State government data shows that till June 4, a total of 29,964 refugees from Myanmar have moved to Mizoram. Of them 11,833 live in 149 relief camps, while 18,131 live by themselves in different parts of the state. The Mizoram government has also issued 29,751 refugee cards, which are temporary certificates of identity. “We have constructed relief camps, given electricity, water and other amenities,” said Vanlalmawia, Mizoram’s additional home secretary.

It is 11.30am, and the biggest of three relief camps in Zokhawthar, in the town play ground, is buzzing, its inhabitants trying to make the best of what has become of their lives. Some have left to find work, others have gathered at a hand pump to wash clothes, or cook and clean utensils. Children, not yet in school, play in one corner.

In two hours, Manguii and her mother, their hands tightly clasped together will walk past the playground, reach the border gate and the arch with the sign, and disappear across the bridge — only to return tomorrow.